The invention relates to a recording and/or reproducing apparatus for a record carrier accommodated in a cassette, comprising a cassette receptacle into which the cassette can be inserted manually in a direction of insertion. The receptacle includes at least one cassette-retaining member, which is movable from an initial position into an operating position at least partly in the direction of insertion. When the member is substantially in its initial position, it can be coupled to a cassette which is inserted manually up to an insertion position defined by a coupling stop on the member. The cassette-retaining member is coupled to a pivotable drive lever through a pin-slot linkage to move the member with the cassette, in response to pivoting of the drive lever by a motor. One of the two longitudinal walls of the slot of the pin-slot linkage cooperates with the pin when the drive lever is driven by the motor, to move the member from its initial position to its operating position.
Such an apparatus is known, for example from German Offenlegungsschrift No. 32 38 510 to which British published patent application No. 2 112 559 corresponds. When in the known apparatus the cassette is coupled to the member during manual insertion of the cassette into an insertion position defined by two coupling stops on the member, the pin of the pin-slot linkage, which pin is arranged on the member, acts on the frontmost longitudinal wall of the slot in the drive lever viewed in the direction of insertion. Thus the forces occurring during coupling of the cassette to the member are transmitted from the member to the drive lever through the pin-slot linkage, and from the lever to the drive mechanism. These forces on the drive mechanism may be comparatively large. During normal operation after a cassette is inserted manually up to the insertion position defined by the two coupling stops, and detection of the presence of a cassette in the cassette receptacle, the motor is started automatically. The member is then moved inside the cassette receptacle by the motor driven insertion of the cassette via the drive mechanism, the drive lever and the pin-slot linkage. However, if the user of the apparatus has omitted to switch on the apparatus before the manual insertion of a cassette into the cassette receptacle, the motor is not started automatically after manual insertion of the cassette. In this case the user generally attempts to start the desired motor-driven insertion of the cassette into the cassette holder by exerting more and more pressure on the cassette. The manual pressure on the cassette then results in comparatively large forces being exerted on the drive mechanism via the two coupling stops on the member, the member and the drive lever, which is coupled to the member via the pin-slot linkage. The drive mechanism may be dimensioned to withstand such forces, but this demands a comparatively large space and is expensive. It is desirable to minimize the dimensions of the drive mechanism but this increases the likelihood of parts of the mechanism being deformed and damaged.